CLOSE: Hampshire are 194-3 (Crawley 78*, Griffiths 0*) from 57 overs after dismissing Somerset for 126
This time last year Hampshire had a bowling attack made up of Stuart Clark, James Bruce, Dimitri Mascarenhas, Chris Tremlett and Shane Warne.
Only Mascarenhas and Tremlett are still Hampshire players but with the Indian Premier League and the England Lions making them unavailable, it was left to James Tomlinson, David Griffiths, Hamza Riazuddin, Sean Ervine and Greg Lamb to shoulder the burden at Taunton.
On paper it appeared a daunting prospect.
Tomlinson (24), Griffiths (6) and Riazuddin (0) only had 30 first-class appearances between them before this week, Lamb is playing only his fifth Championship match since 2005 and Ervine has not been a frontline bowler since suffering a serious knee injury three years ago.
They were up against a Somerset side that boasts some of the best batsmen in the Championship at one of the most batter-friendly grounds on the circuit in Taunton.
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But Lamb was not even needed as Hampshire dominated Somerset from beginning to end of a memorable day.
Jimmy Adams, who is making his captaincy debut in the Championship in the absence of Mascarenhas, made the unusual decision to bowl first after winning the toss on a hot day at Taunton.
James Tomlinson
But he was soon vindicated as Tomlinson reduced the home side to 11-3 on a track that Somerset had feared was too damp since the beginning of the week.
Tomlinson began a memorable day by uprooting the off stump of left-hander Neil Edwards (5) with what is fast becoming his trademark inswinger.
After Edwards had become his 50th first-class victim, Tomlinson dismissed Justin Langer (0) with his next ball when the Somerset captain hit a square cut straight to Sean Ervine at backward point.
He had three wickets in four balls when James Hildreth (0), a Friends Provident Trophy centurion at the Rose Bowl on Friday, handed John Crawley a bat-pad catch at short leg.
After Marcus Trescothick (11) edged to first slip Tomlinson found himself on a hat-trick for the second time when Zander de Bruyn (3) slashed to third and Peter Trego (0) was trapped lbw by an inswinger.
Read tomorrow's Daily Echo to read James Tomlinson's reaction to the best day of his career
Hamza Riazuddin's last match was for Bradfield College at the weekend and he is currently studying for his A levels.
Suddenly, he found himself playing alongside Kevin Pietersen but he bowled with no sign of nerves and in his second over his brisk medium pace found the outside edge of Ian Blackwell's bat.
It denied Tomlinson the chance to take all ten Somerset wickets but after a first spell of 10-1-35-6, the former Cardiff UCCE student returned at the River End to claim the wicket of Craig Kieswetter (32).
The delivery Tomlinson ranked as his best of the day left the 20-year-old right-hander before flattening his off stump.
That ended a frustrating 50-run stand for the eighth wicket.
David Griffiths took a deserved first Championship wicket of the season when he trapped Michael Munday (4) with a yorker and Tomlinson completed a remarkable performance when he ended the resistance of home Championship debutant Ben Phillips (39), who edged a high catch to Michael Lumb at slip.
After Hampshire were reduced to 3-2, Kevin Pietersen (100) struck his third hundred for the county in his first Championship appearance for three years.
As the wicket flattened, he and John Crawley (78) took Hampshire past Somerset's first-innings total with a third-wicket stand of 190.
But immediately after Pietersen reached a chanceless hundred from 158 balls (14 fours), his responsible innings ended when he edged Peter Trego's medium pace to wicketkeeper Kieswetter as he attempted a forcing shot off the back foot.
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